At the beginning of my module on electricity this week, I asked a question of my students,"What and how electricity plays an important in the 21st century.
The "Big Idea" that is the focus of this blogging experience is electricity and flow of current through the circuit. This particular "Big Idea" is a focus at the 4th grade level at the national and state level here in NJ. Learning how a circuit operates is important in assisting each one of us troubleshoot electrical issues that arise in our everyday lives. (i.e- Christmas lights, circuit breakers in a house, etc.)
Before introducing 21-century technology and tools into the lesson, I would allow the natural curiosity of the students "loose." The first inquiry experience is giving each cooperative learning pair of children, a D-cell, 2 wires and a light bulb, let them light the bulb without any prompting from the teacher. The second inquiry experience is the how the flow of a circuit can be controlled with the introduction of a switch in this case a hex screw. The final inquiry experience students in cooperative learning groups explore and investigate parallel and series circuits.
After the inquiry experiences, technology is then integrated into the lesson - The sites provide additional insight to students correcting any misunderstanding and misconceptions they might come up during the inquiry stage.
Science Zone
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/Science/electricity.htm
Students can click on a variety of links for interactive sites involving different electricity concepts.
42explore
http://www.42explore.com/electric.htm
Good reference site
Science Kids
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities/electricitycircuits.html
Interactive site - students experiment with different components to build a circuit.
Challenges: Integration of the interactive sites and technology into the actual inquiry experiences.
Any suggestions from my fellow colleagues?
Mark,
ReplyDeleteMy blog this week also focused on electricity and energy flowing through a circuit. The Science Zone website is incredible. There are so many activities on one site. I wish that I had enough computers to have my students explore this site independently.
Hi Mark, I really enjoyed exploring yur webcites. My favorite is Science Kids. This web cite has a lot on hands-on activities that would for sure keep the students engaged and interested. A webcite that I believe might be helpful as resource that pertains to physica science is http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/.
ReplyDeleteMark,
ReplyDeleteI think your students could really learn a lot from working with the applets available on the Science Zone site. Applets are such a great way to bring 21st century skills into learning concepts students have been working on for decades.
One way to involve the interactive sites within the inquiry experience could be to create a game time for the students to compete against each other on who can complete a concept fastest?
~Charity
I have started the electrivity unit with 6th graders much in the same way you did. They loved it! Students understood the basics of complete and incomplete circuits at the end of the inquiry process.
ReplyDeleteThe sites you posted are good. What kind of guidance will you give, and how will you assess that they learned what they needed to from the websites?